IEOM Detroit Conference K eynote Speakers August 10-14, 2020

topics alone. He is currently serving as the Editor of the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Associate Editor of the TQM and Business
Excellence Journal, Associate Editor of TQM Journal (Emerald) and Associate Editor of Quality in Education (ASQ). He is serving on the Editorial
Board of six international journals. Professor Antony has worked on a number of consultancy projects with several blue chip companies such as
Rolls-Royce, Bosch, Siemens, Parker Pen, Siemens, Johnson and Johnson, GE Plastics, Ford, Scottish Power, Tata Motors, Thales, Nokia, Philips,
General Electric, NHS, Glasgow City Council, ACCESS, Scottish Water, Police Scotland, University Sectors and a number of Small and Medium
Sized Enterprises. Professor Antony is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, UK; Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute, UK; Fellow of the
Institute of Operations Management, UK; Fellow of the American Society for Quality and Fellow of the Institute of Six Sigma Professionals. He has
been elected to the International Academy of Quality as an Academician this year.

Industry Co-Chair Remarks: Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Saso Krstovski, MBB, Lean Manufacturing Coach /Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Van Dyke Transmission Plant, Ford Motor Company

Tuesday Keynote I: August 11, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Dr. Raj Kawlra
Director, Global Manufacturing
Methods and Measurements
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA)
Auburn Hills, Michigan

Dr. Raj Kawlra is Director of Global Manufacturing Methods and Measurement at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
He has 35 years of automotive experience in concurrent engineering, advanced manufacturing engineering,
quality, lean manufacturing, launching products, and manufacturing planning functions. He has had the
opportunity to work in both powertrain and vehicle assembly. Over the years, he has successfully developed
and implemented major strategies to drive improvements in throughput, quality, and cost.

Dr. Kawlra spent the first 16 years of his automotive career at GM Tech Center with responsibilities ranging
from lead process engineer for the first “lights out” Flexible Manufacturing System in Powertrain in the late 80s
to leading the development of a simple plant floor problem solving toolkit that leveraged advanced statistics
and enabled GM to achieve world-class dimensional quality levels during the MY97 launch of their full size
trucks at (3) plants. He also had the opportunity to work with the best lean gurus to develop GM’s Global Manufacturing System and implement it
for their greenfield plant that launched Cadillac CTS in CY01.

Dr. Kawlra joined Chrysler in CY01 with the responsibility to develop and implement the Black Belt program at all of their (28) plant locations. Over
the years, he has held numerous leadership positions ranging from Manufacturing Quality Director to Dimensional Quality Director to Industrial
Engineering Director to the Manufacturing Planning Director. Over the last 5 years, he has also led the development and implementation of World
Class Technology (WCT) - application of lean principles to manufacturing engineering function that designs and implements equipment and
processes for all launches - first of its kind in the industry. WCT has been successfully applied across all regions and divisions at FCA, with savings
ranging from $5 to 10M for each launch. In his current role as Director of Global Manufacturing, his responsibilities include leading global
benchmarking activities, setting competitive targets and driving improvements in operational business metrics, long-term manpower planning, and
global data analytics strategy.

Dr. Kawlra is a Big 10 fan, having received degrees from University of Wisconsin (MS, Mech Engr), University of Illinois (MS, IE), and University of
Michigan (PhD, IOE). He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology. He also has an Executive Management
Certification from INSEAD. Over the years he has been on the Department of Defense Oversight Committee (CY09- 11) and has served on the
Advisory Board of University of Wisconsin’s Industrial and Systems Engineering department (CY11-17). Dr. Kawlra served as Industrial Advisor of
two doctoral students of Doctor of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems at Lawrence Technological University.

Tuesday Keynote II: August 11, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Dr. Seth Guikema

Professor
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering and
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
President, Society of Risk Analysis

Dr. Seth Guikema is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering and the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan as of August 2015. Prior to
this, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering (DoGEE)
at Johns Hopkins University. He is also an adjunct Professor II in the Department of Safety, Economics, and
Planning at the University of Stavanger in Norway, and a Data Science Research Fellow at One Concern, Inc.,
a Silcon Valley start-up.

His academic training includes a B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Cornell University), a M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering (Stanford
University), a M.E. by thesis in Civil Engineering (University of Canterbury in New Zealand), a Ph.D. in Management Science & Engineering with a
concentration in Engineering Risk & Decision Analysis (Stanford University), and a postdoctoral research position in Civil & Environmental
Engineering (Cornell University). He began his faculty career at Texas A&M University in Civil Engineering and moved to DoGEE at JHU in 2008.
He received tenure at JHU in 2014 and became the Carol Linde Croft Faculty Scholar there in 2015. He moved to the University of Michigan in
August 2015. Seth is currently the Area Editor for Mathematical Modeling in the journal Risk Analysis, was an Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal
of Infrastructure Systems until 2018, and is on the editorial boards of the journals Reliability Engineering and System Safety and Performability
Engineering. He previously completed a three-year terms on the governing Councils of the International Society for Risk Analysis and the INFORMS
Decision Analysis Society.

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IEOM Detroit Conference K eynote Speakers August 10-14, 2020

Dr. Guikema’s research is highly interdisciplinary. Much of his group’s recent work is focused on the problems of urban and infrastructure resilience
and sustainability in a changing climate, though areas of application are broad. It is grounded in risk analysis, particularly data-drive risk analysis
and complex systems simulation. One major topic is developing, testing, and implementing risk analysis methods based in machine learning,
stochastica and agent-based simulation, game theory, and decision analysis. Another strong research thrust in the group is using modern simulation
methods to more fully understand the role of human behavior in the evoluation of vulnerabiltiy and risk in hazard-prone regions. This work is a
combination of theory and practice, spanning from new methods development, testing, and validation to close interactions with utilities to develop
and implement new methods for estimating performance and risk to infrastructure systems from disasters.

Conference Co-Chair Remarks: Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Wilkistar Otieno, Associate Professor and Chair Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Wednesday Keynote I: August 12, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

Cheryl Thompson
Founder and CEO of CADIA
Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement
Detroit, Michigan

Cheryl Thompson is the founder of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement (CADIA).
CADIA supports Diversity and Inclusion for the Automotive Industry by providing professional development for
individuals, along with resources, programs and tools that drive organizational evolution. A veteran of the
automotive industry, Cheryl has over 30 years of experience at Ford Motor Company and American Axle and
Manufacturing in positions ranging from skilled trades, operations, engineering and global leadership. She is
trained in diversity and inclusion, career and leadership coaching and is Six Sigma trained and certified as a
Black Belt. Cheryl has been recognized as a 2019 Influential Women in Manufacturing Honoree, a 2019 Corp
Magazine Salute to Diversity award winner, and is the recipient of two Diversity and Inclusion Awards from Ford
Motor Company. A sought-after voice and speaker in the automotive, manufacturing and aerospace & defense industries, Cheryl has performed
keynote addresses, workshops and breakout sessions for a number of companies and events, including TEDx Windsor, Women in Manufacturing
(WiM), the American Automotive Summit, and Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

Wednesday Keynote II: August 12, 2020, 10:20 – 11:00 am

Jeffrey Abell, Ph.D., FSME, PE

Director, Manufacturing Systems Research Lab
Chief Scientist for Global Manufacturing
Global Research & Development
General Motors Company
Warren, Michigan

Dr. Jeffrey Abell is Director and Chief Scientist of Manufacturing Systems Research at General Motors. He is
responsible for manufacturing research in the company including vehicle electrification, lightweight materials
processing, automation, and artificial intelligence/analytics. Previously, he was responsible for battery
manufacturing research and his team played a key role in bringing the Chevy Volt advanced high power battery
to production. He has successfully implemented various evolutionary based optimization methods to solve
complex industrial design problems and was awarded the 2011 and 2014 General Motors Boss Kettering
Awards for outstanding technical innovation. He has a Bachelor’s of Mechanical Engineering degree from
General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), and graduate degrees in Systems Engineering from
Oakland University.

Dr. Abell has also held a number of positions in the product development and manufacturing engineering at GM, Delphi, and DaimlerChrysler,
including two international assignments.

Dr. Abell is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and a licensed Professional Engineer (Michigan). He has written numerous
technical publications and is active in various professional societies and associations.

Conference Co-Chair Remarks: Thursday, August 13, 2020, 9:30 – 9:40 am

Dr. Muhammad Sohail Ahmed, Professor, Engineering Management, School of Engineering, Eastern Michigan University

Thursday Keynote I: August 13, 2020, 9:40 – 10:20 am

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